Archive for the ‘Gain’ tag
ESO Fund pools $25M to float former employees exercising stock options (exclusive)
The Employee Stock Option Fund announced today that it has pooled $25 million for its inaugural loan program that will lend departing employees money to exercise their stock options.
Employees who are leaving a company, but do not have the cash to buy out their stock can purchase a loan from the ESO Fund. In the event that the company goes public or is acquired, the former employee repays the loan and then keeps the rest of the financial gain. If the stock loses value, the fund, not the employee, bears the weight of the loss.
With this unique arrangement, the ESO fund reduces the risk of exercising stock options while also standing to capitalize on a massive amount of future earnings. The company estimates that each year, employees of venture-backed companies forfeit approximately $500 million in future earnings.
“I noticed that the stock option pool was a large, untapped area and that all this equity was essentially being wasted,” said co-founder Scott Chou in an interview. “When people leave a job, they are often pissed off and the last thing they want to do is write a large check, or they don’t know what to do. So they came come to us.”
Leaving a job can be traumatic, and the opportunity to receive a little cash paired with the prospect of future returns can certainly soften the shock of transition. Even if there is no bad blood, most people are wary of putting put tens of thousands of dollars in an investment that won’t necessarily pay out. Venture capital firms, on the other hand, can take much more significant risks because they have a diversified portfolio, but are often not interested in conducting such small transactions.
The ESO Fund strives to bridge this gap.
It was founded by veteran venture capitalists Chou, Stephen Roberts, and Jimmy Lackie. The idea was inspired by their experiences as board members for startups where significant numbers of departing employees did not exercise their options.
ESO Fund is based in Redwood Shores, California.
Filed under: VentureBeat 
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 1, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yelp Posts Q2 Revenue Gain, Claims 78 Million Users Globally Yelp just announced second quarter revenues of $32.7 million compared with $27.4 million last…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Yelp Posts Q2 Revenue Gain, Claims 78 Million Users Globally
Yelp just announced second quarter revenues of $32.7 million compared with $27.4 million last quarter. This beat analyst expectations. The company also said it had a net loss of $2 million compared to a loss of $1.2 million a year ago. Yelp reported that revenues for the first two quarters this…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Netflix “Returns To Profitability,” Reports Gain Of $0.11 Per Share On $889M In Revenue
Netflix has just released its second quarter 2012 earnings report, in which the video rental veteran outpaced estimates, improving on last quarter and meeting most expectations and even beating some. Revenue increased to $889 million compared to the same period for 2011. Earnings per share came in at $0.11 per share. In the weeks leading up to the release, analysts had been projected Netflix to remain steady, reporting a profit of $0.04 per share on sales of $889 million.
That works out to a $6 million gain for the quarter, and brass are happy with the outcome over the quarter. In their letter to investors (see below), CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells said that Netflix returned to global profitability this quarter, and are gearing up for more of the same in Q3. Although, as it should be, expectations remained mild for the rest of the summer.
Hastings said in the earnings release:
Q3 has begun strongly for us, and we expect to be profitable again in Q3. In Q4, we will launch our next international market, which will drive us temporarily back into the red. We have enormous challenges ahead, and no doubt will have further ups and downs as we pioneer Internet television. We are making progress in every market we serve, and see a once-in-a-generation opportunity ahead to build the world’s most popular TV show and movie service.
In terms of subscriptions the company also reported moderate gains, but didn’t meet the benchmark set last quarter, when they saw “nearly 3 million” new subscribers for their streaming business. In total, both international and domestic, Netflix’s subscriptions increased by about 1.09 million, while DVD subscriptions fell by approximately 850K. All in all, this quarter bumps Netflix’s streaming numbers up, but only slightly. Last quarter, the company had 23.41 million subscribers, compared to Q2, which rose modestly to 24 million domestic streaming members.
About 10 months ago, Netflix launched in Latin America, and the company reported today that it recently surpassed one million members. In turn, it launched in the U.K. and Ireland 6 months ago, and today hit one million members there as well, with Netflix quick to point out that it has “pulled ahead” of its European competitor LOVEFiLM in “every important streaming-related metric.”
This international growth is important to Netflix and its long-term growth. Already Netflix has said that its international segment represents 13 percent of its total streaming members — and represented just over half of streaming adds in the quarter. While the company forecasts continuing growth in Q3, it will launch in yet another international market in Q4 and downplayed expectations as a result, saying that it was likely to end up “in the red.”
Moreover, in terms of outlook, Netflix is using 2010 for its year-over-year forecasts, because 2011 was “an anomaly” due to its mid-year price change. (That’s putting it mildly.) So, the company expects its net additions to be about the same as 2010 Q1 and Q3, while Q4 stands to be higher, in spite of the spend from launching in another international market. While Netflix saw 50% fewer domestic net additions compared to Q2 2010, it expects the Olympics to have a negative or cannibalizing effect on viewership and thus puts guidance between 1M and 1.8M domestic net adds.
In terms of competition? Netflix has said repeatedly over the last few years that it really hasn’t seen enough overlap from Amazon Prime and HuluPlus to get it shaking in its proverbial boots. However, Ryan today covered the unveiling of Redbox and Verizon’s streaming video content service, which could pose a more serious threat to Netflix down the road just based on the reach of Verizon’s network.
The details were scant in the announcement of Red-rizon’s new service today, so naturally Netflix deflected, saying it “will face a big challenge to break into the top three of subscription streaming services.” Which, to be fair, is obviously true. For now.
Another thing to note: Netflix was demure in its earnings statement, and we may learn more in its investor call this afternoon, but the company went out of its way to praise HBO Go, which one might find surprising since the two compete (as Netflix admits) for content and viewers.
However, Netflix said that it might also “find opportunities to work together,” hinting at a possibile collaboration. Because HBO requires one to have a cable subscription to use HBO go, many cord cutters refuse to pay the high price. Collaborating with Netflix could be big for both companies, and more importantly, the end user.
Lastly, the company also officially announced today that it has appointed Kelly Bennett as its new CMO. Bennett joins Netflix from Warner Brothers, where she was a VP of Marketing. This is interesting when put in the context of Netflix’s ongoing management shuffle, as portrayed in an epic piece by Greg Sandoval that investigates the reasons for Netflix’s unprecedented fall from grace in 2011.
Q2 2012 letter to investors below:
Updating
Take the #OptimizeBook Integrated Online Marketing Survey
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The Optimize Book Integrated Marketing Survey covers some really important questions that will get you thinking about integrating digital marketing and communications tactics. How effective are these tactics, what’s the organization’s expertise and future investment intentions? What role does customer data play for integrated strategy and execution?
Taking the survey will help us all gain valuable insight into the current state of integrated online marketing that we can share with you, our readers here at Online Marketing Blog. Those insights can help you compare your own efforts to those of your peers resulting in a more effective approach.
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Take the #OptimizeBook Integrated Online Marketing Survey | http://www.toprankblog.com
US PC shipments drop 6% as Apple posts 4% gain
Estimated quarterly PC shipments show the overall U.S. market declined 5.7 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2012 while Apple grew 4.3 percent.
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Why Students Should Gain Entrepreneurship Experience Before Graduating
Editor’s note: Dan Schawbel is the managing partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and management consulting firm. He is also the #1 international bestselling author of Me 2.0 and was named to the Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30 list in 2010. Subscribe to his updates at Facebook.com/DanSchawbel.
More and more students are realizing that they can’t pass their degree in for a job upon graduation anymore. The old promise made by our education system was that if you worked really hard in school, you would be almost guaranteed a job as a reward for your efforts. Furthermore, corporations used to hire most of their interns into full-time positions. Both of these promises have been broken due to economic constraints and global competition. Based on a recent report by my company, we found that employers expect students to have at least one internship, yet only half of them are bringing on new interns and few have hired them into full-time positions. The normal path to growing your career is non-existent. In today’s world, you can’t rely on anything or anyone to make you successful – you have to be accountable for your own career and create your own path.
Students are stressed out because there are few paid internships and it’s even hard to get unpaid ones. To me, the solution to this mess is clear: Students who can’t get internships should start a small business or a side project, both of which can act as an internship. If the business fails, they still learn something and have experience on their resume. If the business is successful, they don’t have to worry about getting a full-time job upon graduation. Instead of sending resumes, praying and begging your friends, you can do things your way. Years ago, it would be rare for a student to have entrepreneurship experience on their resume because the cost of starting a business was so high and because they didn’t have the resources or expertise to pull it off. Times
have changed!
Now, hundreds of colleges offer entrepreneurship courses and employers are starting to understand the importance of that type of education. In our research, we found that some employers are actually looking for students with entrepreneurship experience when hiring for entry-level positions. Why do you think? Well, it’s because students who have an entrepreneurial mindset are accountable for their own actions, aggressive and know how to execute. They also have the communication and sales skills that are necessary to be successful in business today. Smart companies fully understand that if they don’t innovate, they won’t exist in the future. By recruiting young entrepreneurs, they bring new perspectives and youthful ideas into the workplace.
When speaking to employers about this phenomenon, some of the top executives said that they would rather hire a student with entrepreneurship experience over a student that had five internships. Entrepreneurs naturally develop soft skills, such as communication skills and teamwork skills that employers are desperately looking for right now as they scout to find the next generation of leaders at their companies. If you’re a student right now, make it your mission to take your career into your own hands and start a project or small business, whether you’re selling clothes on eBay, selling products to fellow students or you come up with the next big Facebook idea. Employers don’t care if it succeeds or fails, just that you gave it a shot and learned something from it. If you want to graduate with a job, then you better brush up your entrepreneurship skills today – your future depends on it!
Landing Page Optimization: How The New York Times generated a 1,052% cumulative conversion gain
In this video, Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director and CEO, MECLABS, shares how The New York Times and MECLABS worked together to generate a 1,052% landing page conversion gain during 18 months of experimentation …
00:28 – Maximizing the efficiency of the sales process
1:19 – Experiment background
2:28 – Test #1
3:56 – Test #1 results
4:27 –Test #2
5:02 – Test #2 results
5:30 – Test #3
5:52 – Test #3 results
5:58 – Test #4
6:05 – Test #4 results
7:31 – Test #5
7:44 – Test #5 results
7:56 – Cumulative results of the experiment
Related Resources:
15 years of marketing research in 11 minutes
Landing Page Optimization: How to plan a radical redesign so you get a lift AND a learning
MarketingExperiments Research Directory
MarketingExperiments methodology
How can I engage with MECLABS?
Samsung’s new Music Hub wants to be more than an iTunes killer
Samsung has released new details/a> of its forthcoming streaming music service, Music Hub, and it might even turn out to be more than just another iTunes competitor.
The service aims to provide a media service for owners of Samsung’s mobile devices, much in the same way that Apple has done with iTunes on the iPod and iPhone.The service itself would allow Samsung device owners to store their digital music files, gain access to it where ever there’s an available internet connection via the cloud, and purchase new music through an online store.
Music Hub will roll out across Europe Tuesday for owners of the Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, and eventually it will add support for devices like the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note. Most likely, the U.S. will be able to get its first taste of Music Hub when the S III hits shelves here in July.
Previously, Samsung largely relied on the Google Play store that is integrated in the Android OS used on most of its mobile devices to entice customers. However, that option closed Samsung off to the possibility of gaining new revenue through media sales, and ultimately growing loyalty among its customers similar to Apple’s customers.
“Samsung is not known for our content services; we make good hardware products but we haven’t done much in the content space but that’s changing,” Samsung SVP of Media Solution Center T.J. Kang said in an interview with Reuters. “We are doing it to create a better experience for our users. There are things we could do better if we have complete control over all of the service.”
Samsung acquired mSpot earlier this month for a reported $8.8 million to further its desire to get into the streaming media business. And aside from its top dollar purchases, part of how Samsung plans to make its own Media/Music Hub service go beyond the iTunes model is by cherry-picking features from other popular services.
Unlike iTunes, Samsung’s Music Hub will give its customers the option of subscribing to a premium version of the service for £/€9.99 per month that gives them virtually unlimited cloud storage space for their media as well as “smart” radio features found on services like Pandora and Last.fm.
It’ll be interesting to see if people actually prefer using Samsung’s new media hub over competing music services (like Pandora, Spotify, MOG, and Rdio) and digital media stores (Google Play, Amazon) — all of which have a pre-established base of users that currently have no reason to start using something new. (Of course, I won’t really be able to make a fair assessment until Samsung launches its Music Hub service in the U.S.)
Image via Samsung
Filed under: cloud, media, mobile 
Marketo Summit Session: Engaging with Cross Channel Marketing
[Note from Brian: Please note that Marketo is a client of TopRank Online Marketing]
When was the last time you heard of a really successful email campaign? Or TV ad campaign? Or a campaign on any channel for that matter? It’s likely been awhile.
The reason that isolated, channel-specific campaigns are rarely discussed these days is simple: they rarely work. That by no means is saying that email, or TV, or social, can’t be incredibly effective platforms to market your messages. Cross channel (see multiple channel) marketing is effective because each of these platforms can have an impact, when integrated into a holistic campaign.
It’s with this in mind that Maria Pergolino, Marketo’s Senior Director of Marketing, led the Marketo Summit panel discussion ‘Engaging with Cross Channel Marketing’.
Joined by Marketo users Tricia Reilly of VMWare and Loretta Jones of Echosign, Pergolino started the session by asking each panel member to share their journey to adopting Marketo’s marketing automation solution. After Reilly and Jones reviewed how their business needs and market demands led them to Marketo, the discussion then changed gears and focused on some ways VMWare and Echosign leveraged data from Marketo to identify and develop a cross-channel marketing strategy to more effectively nurture prospects through the sales funnel.
The session featured several case studies, but Pergolino’s own story of Marketo’s recent campaign to re-engage stale contacts really resonated with the crowd. Here are the details on how fortune cookies drove $200K in revenue for Marketo.
Marketo’s Fortune Cookie Campaign
Challenge: Reinvigorate high value but inactive email subscribers.
Strategy: Re-engage these stalled contacts through a multi-touch, customized campaign.
Tactics: Pergolino’s team deployed a marketing mix aimed at a targeted audience segment that included: email, direct mail, web content and phone calls.
Marketo’s marketing team started the campaign by leveraging the sales teams insights and asking them to nominnate contacts to target for the campaign. After the lists of contacts were cleaned to remove old or inaccurate data, the campaign was ready to launch.
- Fortune cookie baskets were sent to targeted contacts
- Each basket included a definitive guide resource, as well as a personal letter
- Once the package was received, the e-signature for the package created a notification within Marketo, triggering an email to the contact
- A follow up call was then automatically scheduled with the appropriate sales rep through Marketo’s integration with Salesforce.
- Optimized web and social content was crafted and published to reinforce the key messages
Results: Pergolino shared that the cost to Marketo for developing and executing the campaign was approximately $13,000. The return was slightly higher, with $200,000 to-date in revenue…with more opportunities in-progress.
Food aside, this story reminds us of the importance of connecting with our audience it different ways. Direct mail, email and phone enabled Marketo to effectively push their strategic message and inspire action, while their optimized web content allowed them to pull in the target audience to destinations that moved them along the funnel.
Have you had success with a cross channel campaign? What’s your fortune cookie story?
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© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
Marketo Summit Session: Engaging with Cross Channel Marketing | http://www.toprankblog.com